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Netflix to release ‘Bird Box’ starring Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock has been cast to star in the Netflix thriller “Bird Box,” based on the 2014 novel by Metro Detroit author Josh Malerman.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news Wednesday, adding that Oscar-winning Danish director Susanne Bier will direct and Eric Heisserer (“Arrival”) wrote the screenplay. Production could start as early as next month, according to reports.

Malerman said he’s “thrilled” to learn of Bullock’s casting in the lead role as Malorie.

“While writing the book you may have a specific actor in mind, someone you really see playing a character, or, more likely, there’s a vague shape in the room with you, a person who might be perfect for the role but maybe you hadn't considered them because it just would of felt silly to start thinking that big, that way,” he said.

“Yet, here we are, Sandra Bullock as Malorie, and I can't help but think back to the vague shape in the room with me, the one who now looks exactly like Sandra Bullock, as if she’s emerged from the fog, Malorie and the kids row through, to play Malorie herself,” he said. “The horror fan in me can’t wait to see how she plays it and to see what Susanne Bier does with the mood as a whole.”

Bier is the first woman director to win a Golden Globe, Academy Award, Emmy and European Film Award.

Published in 2014, the post-apocalyptic thriller “Bird Box,” which is set in Michigan, won the Michigan Notable Book Award and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel. Malerman, who lives in Ferndale and plays in the rock group the High Strung, recently released a second novel, “Black Mad Wheel.”